Follow the trail of a former gym class dropout, who picked up running decades later and never looked back. Bookmark this spot, and visit often for news, views, and reviews. (TABLET & SMARTPHONE USERS: This site performs best in WEB VERSION, if you have the choice.)

Thursday

How cold is too cold to run outdoors?

Oh, baby. It really is
cold outside! Weather warnings abound. I even received a text message alert
from the county sheriff’s department.

Wa-a-a-ah! I wanna
run!

But the local forecast includes a wind chill advisory today
and a full-on snow advisory for the next couple of days. Sometimes there’s just
no rime or reason, when it comes to this season. (Nope, that’s not a typo.)

The actual temperature is in the low single digits. The wind
chill is dropping to 20-something-below. Yeah, that’s pretty much enough to
freeze your face off (according to multiple medical and outdoor sports
experts), not to mention the icicles that may form inside your lungs while
running.

Is a jaunt or jog in
the great out of doors worth the risk of hyperthermia and frostbite?

Experts say frostbite can happen in the first 30 minutes of
exposure, if it’s this cold. And hypothermia nips right at frostbite’s heels on
the run. If the wind chill is below -15 (F), generally accepted guidelines
suggests outdoor exercise isn’t such a solid pick.

Bingo. There it is.

No matter how many layers of winter garb I slip on, and no
matter how much of my face (and everything else) I try to cover, I’m pretty
sure something’s gonna frost up, if I go.

Oh, and has anyone
else noticed how the general and collective intelligence quotient of local
drivers (nearly anywhere) seems to plunge right along with the mercury in the
wintertime?

So I guess I won’t be dashing through the snow this time. I
hate my elliptical (It wobbles, because I didn’t spring for the Schwinn,
Nautilus,
or NordikTrak
version. Plus, it’s boring.), but I guess that’s it for today. Those Christmas
cookies aren’t gonna work themselves off.

My 2017 Holiday Fitness Challenge

FINISHED on 12-23-17

Run the Year 2017 - COMPLETED

The goal was to run 2,017 miles in 2017. Done! (My year-end total was 2,050.)

October 2017 Burpees Challenge

Done!

Run the Year 2017 - January Streak Tracker

Completed!

My 2016 Holiday Fitness Challenge

Done.

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and other sites. With a B.A. in English and an M.S.J. in
Journalism, Linda Ann has worked as a professional writer for more than 30
years. Her portfolio includes thousands of print and online articles.

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